archive.ph

“Nouveau riche” industrialists began to buy their way into high society, and existing aristocratic elites, battling economic upheaval, were unable to guard against this pecuniary emulation. 

This hardening will reveal the root problem. Despite many people contributing to the tools and services that now dominate our lives, most people have no stake in them. To cite just one example, the four million people who drive for Uber probably own less of the company combined than a single dentist in New Jersey with Vanguard in their portfolio.

In the future, the Other Internet also believes we won’t necessarily interact with money as individuals but as collective “wealth squads.” They talk about how fractionalization can create opportunities and group resilience that would previously have been impossible to achieve alone.

As a culture, we have a tendency to celebrate status that emerges from net worth and network signaling rather than the work ethic of a second-act founder using his net worth and network, while he grinds on a project, to drive the world forward. This is totally backwards.

Controlling valuable pillars of internet utility -- the flow of information, social connections, music and video delivery -- has created tremendous wealth for a few while very little for stakeholders not on the company’s cap table.